Abstract: The filtered cathodic vacuum-arc (FCVA) technique is a supplementary and alternative technique with respect to convendtional physical and chemical vapour deposition which can remove macro-particles effectively and make the deposition process at ambient temperature. In this work, high quality TiN thin films were deposited on silicon substrates at low temperature using the improved filtered cathodic arc plasma (FCAP) technique. AFM, XRD, TEM were employed to characterize the TiN thin films. The effects of the negative substrate bias on the grain size, preferred crystalline orientation, surface roughness of TiN thin films were discussed.

Key words: TiN, filtered cathodic arc plasma, preferred orientation